Category: Rider Journal

Woah! Where did the summer go? Mountain bike season has come and gone and after taking to the start line at last weekends Nittany CX, my UCI Cyclocross season is now fully underway. My opening weekend was a bit of a mixed bag, I had a blast finally seeing all of my cyclocross family in one place again after the summer but my results left a little to be desired. While it was only my first major race of the year, it still feels like a bit of a letdown to not meet my expectations after a long buildup to the season.

[Editor’s Note: pro cyclist and recent Crosshairs Radio guest, Cole Oberman, checks in from the dirt road with his first installment of a new feature on cxhairs.com. We’re still coming up with a name for Cole’s for now unnamed column and hope to crack that code soon. If you have an idea for a name send it along, but know in advance, all of your coal puns will be ignored. Before handing it off to Cole, we want to give a shout out to Julbo for making his trip possible. If after reading Cole’s column you want more info on the La Leyenda del Dorado event, check out legendofeldorado.com/en.]

It’s funny how some of the most incredible opportunities in life seem to drop in out of nowhere. This was certainly the case with my trip to La Leyenda del Dorado MTB Stage Race in Colombia a few weeks ago. About a month before the event I received an email from Dave Crothers at Julbo Eyewear USA asking if I was interested in going to Colombia to do a 7 day mountain bike stage race. A bunch of thoughts immediately ran through my head; I haven’t done a stage race in 2 years, I’ve only been training for XC, I speak like literally 4 words of Spanish, and I won’t know anyone there. Obviously I replied with an emphatic, SOUNDS PERFECT! Continue reading “La Leyenda del Dorado 2016”

This isn’t a report about UCI racing in Colorado, New Jersey, Maryland, or Canada. It’s coming from a place closer to my heart and in my backyard, southern California. The SocalCross Prestige Series (SCPS) is where I started racing, and racing here always feels like playing around on bikes with a big family. Continue reading “Panda’s POV: Back To My Roots”

Development. A word that was used a lot over my 3 weeks on the east coast. A lot of good and bad things to take away from my time here. It all started in Gloucester, Massachusetts, earlier in the month. Continue reading “Gavin on Development”

[Editor’s Note: Amanda “Panda” Nauman is a southern California racer who is on the cusp of breaking into the top tier of professional cyclocross racing in the U.S. We are excited to have Amanda on board this season to share her experiences as she attempts to enter the top 10 in the USAC Pro CX rankings.]Continue reading “Panda’s POV: Behind The Barricades”

[Editor’s Note: Today we introduce another contributor to the In The Crosshairs rider journal series. Gavin Haley is a rising star in cyclocross. A silver medal winner at the 2015 Cyclocross Nationals and a solid performance at Worlds, Gavin is a rider to watch. He is 18 years old and lives in Santa Rosa, California. A natural on the bike, Gavin started riding without training wheels when he was around 2 years old. He grew up riding mountain bikes with his dad but didn’t race at first. “I have a Motorcross background, and picked up racing cyclocross when I was 10. I instantly loved it and have been racing ever since.” Besides riding bikes, Gavin has many hobbies, the biggest being music. He plays practically every instrument and is a pretty great singer, too. We had the opportunity to talk to Gavin at the pre-CrossVegas media event. That video interview is posted below Gavin’s journal entry.]

[Editor’s note: Mark McConnell, a/k/a Hot Sauce, has a great story, which you will enjoy in full, below. Mark is a guy I’ve loved rooting for over the past year and he was one of the first people I asked to contribute a rider’s journal to In The Crosshairs. As the weeks go by, and we get farther into the season, more racers will appear on the site telling you their first person story of racing cyclocross in the U.S. and Europe. I can’t tell you how excited I am to help share these stories. If you like what you read, or have any comments or questions, send them to feedback@cxhairs.com. And thanks for reading.] Continue reading “The Hot Sauce Chronicles: Part 1”